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UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD. 



GEOLOGICAL & AGKICULTUEAL SURYEY 



100 Miles West of Omaha. 



r-' / 



THE AMEEICAlSr BUEEATJ OF MII^ES, YW]^ 




AMERICAN BUREAU OF MINES, No. 44 EXCHANGE PLACE. 
1866. 



"p- 



Office of the American Bureau of Mines, 

No. 44 Exchange Place, 
J\rew York, August 23dy 7866. 



T. C. DURANT, Esq., 

VicE-PKEsroENT Union Pacitio Eaileoad. 

Dear Sir : 

The American Bureau of Mines, having at 

your instance undertaken the Geological and Agricultural 

examination of the lands of the Union Pacific Kailroad 

Company for one hundred miles west of Omaha, has the 

honor to transmit the accompanying Report of the Board 

of Experts. 

GEO. D. H. GILLESPIE, 

President. 

GEO. P. A. RICKETTS, 

Secretary. 



OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF EXPERTS ) 

OF THE AMEEICAIT BtJEEAU OF MINES. ) 

JVejp Tork, Auffusi 2Sd, /866. 



Geo. D. H. Gillespie, Esq., President Board of Trustees. 

Deae Sm: 

The Board of Experts having received from you a 
commission to examine the Geology and Agriculture of the first 
100 miles of the Union Pacific Kailroad, Prof. Tnos. Egleston, 
Jr., was charged with the personal reconnoissance of the ground. 
The unanimous report of this Board, embodying the results of 
his examination, is herewith respectfully submitted. 

Prof. Egleston desires thanks to be given to his Assistants, 
Messrs. Hale, Harmer, and Chester, students of the School of 
Mines of Columbia College; to Capt. ECollins, guide of his 
party; to the ofiicers of the Eailroad Company, and to the 
citizens of Nebraska generally, who were everywhere ready to 
facilitate his survey. 

For the Board of Experts, 

J. P. KIMBALL, Vicc-Fres, 
K. W. RAYMOND, Secretary. 



OS TH2 

Geology and Agriculture of the First Hundred Miles 

or THE 

imiON PACIFIC RAILROAD. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 

Omaha, the capital of Xebraska Territory, and the eastern ter- 
minns of the Union Pacific Eailroad, is sitnated on tlie :Mi;souri 
Kiver, at 41^15' north latitude, Meen miles above its junction 
with the Platte. It is very nearly in tbe middle of tlie river-ft'ont 
of the Territory, and 1000 feet above the level of the sea. The 
Bnrface of the Territory gradually rises to the Xorth and West, and 
at Fort Kearney, 175 miles -^est, the elevation is 2,360 feet. It 
nowhere attains' an elevation that can be called a mountain, but 
rises crently in a series of low table-lands and rolling hills. The 
^enerll direction of the Missouri Pdver is a little E. of S. The 
Platte has the general direction of X. E., though it varies very 
much in its course, running sometimes S., and even S. E. 
Almost all of the larger streams north of the Platte flow into 
it. In the northern part of the Territory, a few flow dii-ectly 
into the Missouri. The Missouri Pdver, therefore, does not aflect 
the topo£:raphy of the eastern part of the country, except within a 
few miles of its bluffs, its divide being nsually from six to ten 
miles from the river in Nebraska. In Iowa it aflect* the country 
much further East, 

The tributaries of the Platte on its north side are quite large. 
and divide the country into several distinct valleys, each one 
having its own water-shed, and varying in its features with the 
size of the stream. 

The largest of these streams within the first one hundred miles 
are the Elkhom on the East, and the Loup Fork on the 'SVest. 
Between the Elkhorn and the Missouri is the smaller valley of 
the Papillon, and between the Elkhom and the Loup Fork that 
of Shell Creek. 



8 

South of the Platte Eiver, the streams which flow into it are 
generally small. The only ones of any importance are Skull Creek 
and Salt Creek. The other streams of any size are either tribu- 
taries of these, or flow into the Blue, which is a tributary of the 
Kansas River. 

It will thus be seen, that, topographically, the Platte is the 
most important river of Nebraska. It has no other importance, 
however, as its stream is very rapid and shallow, changing its 
channel often. It is obstructed in all directions with shifting 
sand-bars, and is too dangerous to allow of its being navio-ated. 

On the north side of the Platte the general direction of its 
tributaries is S. E. ; while their tributaries are generally nearly 
parallel to the Platte. 

This disposition of the rivers of the Territory would seem to 
indicate at least two series of geological disturbances nearly at 
right angles to each other ; but no trace of water-courses formed 
by rupture of the surface can be seen in any of the rocks. 
Where they are exposed to view, they exhibit but very slight 
marks of disturbance. The dip of the rock is constant, and 
apparently never as great as one degree. 

The river-valleys appear to be exclusively valleys of erosion,' 
and their formation can be seen at the present time goino- on 
both on a large and small scale all over the country. 

Most of the streams on the north side have high earth banks, 
and, like the Missouri and Platte Rivers, rapid currents. They 
are subject to great fluctuations in their height, rising and fallino- 
rapidly ; and their waters are rarely, if ever, clear. 

Skull and Salt Creeks, on the South side, have, however, rock 
bottoms and clear water. 

All of the smaller streams have in turn their tributaries. 
These are frequently dry, except just after a rain, and are 
usually nothing more than the channel of the waters flowing from 
the sm-face. These, however, as well as the continuously flowino- 
streams, have their rise in slight depressions in the surface, which 
would not be detected by the eye, except for the direction of the 
current. 

It will thus be seen that the country is cut up into a series of 
valleys running at angles to the Platte, which correspond in size 
and importance to the rivers flowing through them. These main 
valleys are intersected by the valleys of the tributary streams 



9 

and these again by others, giving rise to that peculiar structure 
of the surface known as rolling prairie. 

In ascending any one of the streams, we find a rich valley, 
which is more or less broad according to the position and im- 
portance of the stream which flows through it. This valley is 
usually called the bottom. The banks of the larger streams are 
generally quite low, and are separated from the bottoms proper 
by a terrace of varying width. It is from two to three feet 
high, and forms the banks of the stream. The bottoms proper 
commence with the next terrace, which is of about the same 
height. The width of these bottom-lands on the Missouri Eiver 
varies from six to eight miles ; on the Platte from three to six ; on 
the tributaries of the Platte they vary from one to two. They 
are composed of rich alluvial soil, and are in many cases covered 
with timber, when the bottoms are liable to overflow. The 
smaller streams also have bottoms. Their banks are often fifteen 
or twenty feet high, and are almost always of earth. They show 
the general tendency of the soil to assume a vertical position 
rather than a talus. There is usually but one terrace, and that 
is the bottom proper. All these small streams are subject to 
great fluctuations, but rarely leave their banks. The bottoms are 
never so wide as on the larger streams, and their banks are 
usually covered with " openings " of hard timber. 

The Platte rarely leaves its banks. Jts tributaries, where they 
enter the Platte bottoms, are liable to overflow in the sprino- 
freshets, or after a very heavy and long-continued rain. 

From the bottoms proper there is a gradual rise to the blufis 
of the third terrace. The height of this terrace above the river 
is about fifty feet at Omaha. The city is built upon it. The 
blufis proper of the river are at the foot of a fourth terrace. 
They are of variable height. At Council Bluffs they are 225 feet 
above the level of the third terrace. They consist in a series 
of low ascending hills, which constitute the divide of the waters 
of the region. The divide between two streams is always broken 
up by the valleys of other streams which are tributary to them. 
The top of the divide from which the waters actually flow in 
different directions, is called the "back-bone," and is usually very 
irregular and crooked. 

Upon this back-bone almost all the roads of the country 
are built. They follow, in most cases, old Indian trails, and are 



10 

generally tlie most expeditious routes of travel, since they present 
the least incline, and allow of carrying the maximum load. 

This disposition of the valleys of the streams in terraces 
grows indistinct as we go west, and is frequently limited to the 
first and the fourth. 

It frequently happens that in the bottom-lands there are spots 
which fall below the level of the rivers or of any di'ainage. These 
places give rise to sloughs, which may be of almost any size. 
Sometimes they are simply the collection of surface-waters, and 
dry up after a rain ; sometimes they are supplied by springs, and 
at others they are caused by the obstruction at one or both of 
their ends of the former channel of the river. These support their 
own fish, and never dry, except when the bed of the stream dries. 
Sometimes such sloughs are from a quarter to half a mile in 
length, and from fifty to a hundred feet wid^. They do not 
appear to have any connection with the river, but their water is 
of the same temperature, and clear. They are probably supplied 
by filtration through the gravel which underlies the whole of the 
bottoms at the depth of ten or fifteen feet. 

. All the streams, whether large or small, take their rise in 
slight depressions in the high rolling prairie, which are either 
sloughs or springs. These are sometimes well defined, and some- 
times only low moist ground, in which the stream is formed 
imperceptibly, small disconnected sloughs appearing at first, grow- 
ing larger and at shorter intervals, until gradually the banks of 
the stream assume a defined form. It is frequently difficult to 
determine the direction of the flow of the water at the head of 
these streams, so very slight is the inclination of the surface. The 
water in such streams has usually about the temperature of 
the air. This method of formation is particularly noticeable at 
the head of Calahan Creek, south of the Platte. As the banks 
of the stream become well marked, and deepen, it commences 
to form bottoms. These usually commence in a bend of the 
stream upon the concave side. As the bottoms are entirely allu- 
vial, the stream is continually varying its banks and changing its 
channel. As the curves in the rivers embrace very large tracts 
of rich land which are protected from fires, the bottoms produce 
a very large amount of timber. The banks and narrow bottoms 
of the smaller streams are covered with brush and some oak 
and other trees, which are either in clumps or scattered so as to 



11 

form " openings," and do not prevent the cultivation of tlie ground. 
Occasionally, these trees will be found at a little distance from 
the banks of the stream, and in the same direction. It is unusual 
to find them at any great distance, since they then lose protection 
from the prairie-fires. 

Many of the sloughs in the bottoms are being slowly filled up 
either by the turbid waters which deposit their mud there after 
an overflow of the rivers, by the accumulations of wash when 
they are near a hill, or of the decaying vegetation from their 
own sides. Many bogs of this character were noticed. All of 
them will furnish excellent top-dressings for the soil. 

In some of these places there were indications of valuable 
beds of peat. Some of them have taken fire in dry times, and 
burned a considerable distance below the surface. 

Some of the springs have medicinal qualities. That of 
Saratoga is the most noted one. It is a sulphurous spring, con- 
taining carbonates and sulphates in solution. Some of the springs 
near De Soto appear to be of the same character. 

We frequently detected traces of sulphur in the water. The 
bases which were usually detected with them were potash, soda, 
and iron. Wherever the springs pass near a layer of slate or 
coal, they form a slough which is colored by hydrated sesqui- 
oxide of ii'on. 

G-EOLOG-Y. 

The Territory of J^ebraska shows, within the boundaries of this 
survey, only two of the geological formations : the Carboniferous 
and the Cretaceous. Evidences of extensive action of a later age 
also exist in the shape of drift, and deep valleys of erosion. 

CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 

The Carboniferous period is represented by a series of highly 
fossiliferous limestones, filled in many places with bands and 
nodules of silex, alternating with shales, which crop out along the 
bluffs of the Missouri and Platte Rivers and some of tlieir tribu- 
taries. The highest point Korth at which they were observed was at 
Rockport, about 10 miles above Omaha, where the limestone forms 
the bed of the river. They crop out in the blufis at Omalia, at 



12 

Bellevue, and at Plattsmoiitli. At Nebraska City the bluff shows 
a succession of shales and limestones. The best place for their 
examination is at Bellevue, where they form the bank of the river 
for more than a quarter of a mile, and on the north bank of the 
Platte, near its mouth, where they crop out in the bluffs at short 
intervals for ten or twelve miles. These limestones vary from 
light yellow to blue, and furnish all the building-stone of the 
country. 

They contain the following fossils, which were identified by 
J^ . B. Meek, Esq., of the Illinois Geological Survey : 

CARBONIFEROUS FOSSILS. 
Fish teeth. Watson's Quarry. 

Philipsia . Plattsmouth. 

Nautilus Illinoensis f Plattsmouth. 
Macrochielus inhdbilis. Bellevue. 
Bellerojphon carhonaHa. Pawnee Creek. 

• . Plattsmouth Ferry. 

Pleurotomaria spherulata. Bellevue. 

Myalina sulquadrata? ^hxxm^vdi. Rockport, Bellevue and 
Caliban Creek. ' 

" amjpla. Plattsmouth. 

Solenomya . Plattsmouth Ferry. 

Allorisma ineqiialis. 

Productus punctatus, Martin sp. = Productus tuUdo-spinns, 
McChesney; P. semipunctatus, Shepard. BeUeviie 
and Eockport. 
equicostatus, Shumard. Bellevue, Eockport, and 

Plattsmouth. 
lYehrascensis, Owen. = P. Rogersi, IsTorwood and 
Pratten ; P. asper, McChesney. Bellevue, Platts- 
mouth, Pawnee Creek, and Calahan Creek. 
Gostatus, Sowerby. Omaha, Bellevue, Larimer, Platts- 
mouth, Plattsmouth Ferry, Salt Creek, and Paw- 
nee Creek. 
« semireUcidatus, Martin sp. = P. Calhomiianus, Swal- 

low. Omaha, Bellevue, Watson's Quarry, and 
Pawnee Creek. 

hngispinus, Sowerby. = P. ^¥abashensis, JS^orwood 
and Pratten. 



13 

Productus symmetricus, McCliesney. Bellevue. 

" Prattennianus. Watson's Quarry. 

Athyris siibtileta, Hall. E.ockj3ort, Omaha, Bellevue, Larimer, 
Dyson's Hollow, Sauntee, Plattsmouth, Pawnee 
Creek, and Salt Creek 
Spirifer earner atus, Morton. =/S\ trijplicatus^ Hall ; S. Meusebach- 
anus, Roemer. Bellevue, Larimer, Dyson's Hol- 
low, Watson's Quarry, Plattsmouth, and Pawnee 
Creek. 
" Uneatusf Watson's Quarry, and Plattsmouth. 
" jolanoconvexus. Pawnee Creek. 
" Kentuckiensis. Pawnee Creek. 
Chonetes mucronata, M. & H. Pawnee Creek. 
Terebratula 'bomdens^ Morton. Pawnee Creek. 
Phetzia punctillifera, Shumard. Plattsmouth Ferry and Paw- 
nee Creek. 
Hemipronites crenostria. Watson's Quarry. 
" striatocosfMus. 

Archoeocidaris . Dyson's Hollow and Plattsmouth. 

ErisochHnus types. Pawnee Creek. 
Zwphrentis. Plattsmouth Ferry. 
Favosites. " " 

Zochrinus. " " 

Fusalina cylindrica. Bellevue, Larimer, Plattsmouth, Salt Creek, 
and Pawnee Creek. 
These fossils show the strata to belong to the upper Carbon- 
iferous. The rocks all dip northwest, but at such a slight angle 
as to make them fall only a few feet to the mile, not more than 
two or three. They are so nearly level, that it is impossible 
without an instrumental observation to see that they dip at all. 
They appear to keep very nearly the level of the Missouri River, 
which descends about one foot to the mile. The dip is proven, 
however, not only by instrumental measurement, but by the fact 
that as we go west or north, we find the more recent formations 
appearing, while the Carboniferous has passed completely out of 
view at the distance of a few miles. The rise in the level of the 
country is not sufficient to account for this, as the thickness of the 
overlying foi*mations will more than counterbalance it. 

If we follow the Platte River from its moutli, we shall find 
these limestones cropping out in both bluffs. As we go west on 
the north bank, we find them well developed at Larimer's Mills 



14 

and at Dyson's Hollow, where there are extensive quarries. As 
we approach Buffalo Creek, we begin to find occasional boulders of 
a coarse red sandstone, and further on we find it in place on the 
top of the hills, with the limestone below it. At Sauntee, where 
the river runs south, this sandstone forms bluffs which are over 
forty feet high. Here it shows no traces of fossils of any kind ; 
further north, however, it contains impressions of dicotyledonous 
plants of Cretaceous species. 

On the south bank of the river these limestones can be seen 
as far west as the bed of Salt Creek. The hills here are much 
higher than on the north bank, and the sandstone commences to 
appear in their tops as far east as Cedar Island. 

At Bellevue, about ten feet above the water's edge, a seam of 
bituminous shale occurs, which has given rise here and elsewhere 
to a great deal of exploration and much useless expenditure. It 
is from three to four feet in thickness, and contains about three 
inches of coal. Lower down, below the level of low water, 
another seam of bituminous shale is found, which has also caused 
much disappointment. A shaft was sunk to it a few miles above 
Council Bluffs, on the opposite side of the river. 

It will thus be seen that the Carboniferous rocks extend for 
ten or twelve miles, and possibly further, north of Omaha, at 
which point they are about six miles wide ; and that on the north 
bank of the Platte they extend west for about fifteen miles, while 
on the south bank they can be reached for about twenty-five 
miles. They form the extreme northwest boundary of the great 
coal-field which embraces parts of Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. 

The thin seams of coal which crop out at or near the water's 
edge have given rise to much exploration, most of which 
was not only unprofitable, but of such a nature that nothing 
was to be gained by it. The citizens of Bellevue directed a 
boring to be made in a ravine near the town ; they, however, 
stopped at 100 feet, and decided to go no further. No record was 
kept of the boring, but from the men who made it we learn that 
at thirty feet, as near as they could recoUect, they struck a six-inch 
seam of coal. This is probably the bituminous shale to which the 
shaft north of Council Bluffs was sunk. At ninety feet they 
struck another seam which was two feet thick. 

A seam of coal crops out on ISTodoway Creek, about forty-five 
miles east of Bellevue, in Iowa, which varies from eighteen to 



15 

twentj-five Indies in tMckness. This coal is worked to a small 
extent and brought into Council Bluffs and Omaha. It is pos- 
sible that this is the seam reached in the boring at Bellevue. 

At Des Moines, 175 miles east of Omaha, in Iowa, a bed of 
coal six feet in thickness is said to have been struck at about 
200 feet. If this is true, and the dip of the strata is constant, 
it would bring this bed at 550 feet from the surface at Omaha, 
According to the section given of the Missouri coal-fields by Mr. 
Hawn, in the Geological Report of Missom-i, a bed of coal six 
feet in thickness should be found 600 feet from the water's edge 
at Bellevue. 

It is impossible, in the limited time that could be devoted to 
(|his subject, and without a more intimate acquaintance with the 
section of the Iowa coal-fields, to give any other than a conjec- 
tural opinion mth regard to the depth at which a workable bed 
of coal will be found. 

Prof Swallow estimates the whole thickness of the Missouri 
coal-field at 650 feet ; Mr. Hawn estimates it at T39. It is pos- 
sible that it may be thicker in ^Nebraska, but admitting that the 
thickness is 1000 feet, there is still a prospect of a workable bed 
of coal being found within working distance of the surface. 

There are two ways to settle this question. One is to explore 
the country in Iowa which has never yet been surveyed. This 
survey should extend to Des Moines. The second, and the most 
satisfactory, will be to make an artesian boring. This can be 
done on the shore of the Missouri at Bellevue, or on the bottoms at 
Omaha, which are only a few feet above Bellevue. Bellevue is how- 
ever preferable, because the boring will commence in rock, 
while at Omaha a number of feet through tlie quicksands Avill 
have to be tubed. 

This boring should be at least TOO feet in depth. If the coal 
is not reached at that depth, it should be pushed to 1000, to settle 
the question. 

If coal is found below 600 feet, it will become a question 
of calculation whether it would be better to purchase land in 
Iowa, where the coal is nearer the surface, and transport it by 
rail, rather than work it at such a depth. 

If such a boring is made, it will be very necessary that the 
results should be carefully recorded from day to day, and that, as 
far as practicable, specimens of the rock should be kept for in- 
spection and examination. 



16 



CRETACEOUS PERIOD. 

The limestones of the upper Coal Measures are covered with a 
red siliceous sandrock. It appears perfectly developed at Saun- 
teCjin the bluffs of the Platte. It is also seen on theElkhorn, near 
Iron Bluff, and on the Papillon, the exposures varying from 20 
to 40 feet in thickness. It is quite unusual to be able to see its 
actual contact with the limestone without considerable explora- 
tion. The only place observed where they came together near 
the surface is on Pawnee Creek, a few miles east of Salt Creek. 
A few feet of earth removed here would show the junction of 
the two, but the work even here would have been so considerable 
that it was not undertaken. 

The red sandstone which crops out in the hill is of rather 
coarse grain ; and where the soil has been washed out, it is 
usual to find large slabs of this rock, and of the limestone below it, 
turned vertically on their edges. The top rock of the Carbon- 
iferous is a light yellow limestone, filled with the debris of a large 
number of fossils, including many Encrinite stems. It is much 
sought for in the vicinity of Salt Creek for building. The stone is 
quite soft, and is easily cut when first taken from the quarry, but 
grows harder after exposure to the air. 

The shade of the sandstone varies, and the rock is not con- 
stant in character. It is sometimes fine and friable, some- 
times quite compact and hard ; sometimes it is loose sand or 
gravel, and at others a conglomerate, closely cemented with iron, 
and containing large pieces of a siliceous oxide of iron. It is 
generally, however, so loosely cemented that it may be rubbed to 
pie(?es in the hand. Yery little of it is suitable for building 
purposes. 

The coloring and cementing material of this rock is oxide of 
iron, which frequently becomes concentrated, so as to give the 
rock an appearance of stratification. Wherever this concentration 
occurs geodes of oxide of iron, of all sizes, are found. These 
geodes are usually filled with yellow sand. One of them was ob- 
served five feet long and four wide, resting on the top of a 
cone fifteen or twenty feet in height. It had been much larger 
than this ; pieces recently broken off had fallen down at 
its side, and were scattered all along the slope of the hill. 
Sometimes, instead of forming geodes, the iron appears to enter 
into combination with the silica ; it then forms an exceedingly 



17 

hard rock. This variety has been quarried to some extent at Iron 
Bluffs for building purposes. Quarries in this rock are not, how- 
ever, to be depended upon. 

The goodes of iron do not occur in sufficient quantities to be 
used as an ore ; besides which, the greater part of them are too 
poor and too refractory to be used in a country where fuel is so 
scarce. 

At Sauntee tlie rock is so soft that it has been excavated to a 
considerable extent by the Indians. Fifteen or twenty feet of 
the excavation were formerly covered with Indian hieroglyphics. 
These have been effaced to a very large extent by the inele- 
gant carvings of recent visitors, who have generally taken care 
to leave their names and the dates of their vandalism behind 
them. 

North of here and higher in the series, the rock frequently loses 
the red tinge, becomes a light grey, and is filled with small part- 
icles of mica and pyrites. This rock is full of dicotyledonous leaves. 
The stems of many of the plants are, still preserved, and lie loose 
in the cavities which contain them. This rock was observed 
only once, in an excavation on Logan Creek, a branch of the 
Elkhorn river. It had been thrown oat from a shaft sunk on a 
thin bed of lignite. The rock appears to contain quite a num- 
ber of thin seams of lignite. None of them, however, which 
have yet been discovered, will pay for working. 

Owing to the friable natui'e of the rock, and the very extensive 
action of the drift, it does not often crop out in the prairies, 
except near some stream. Its limits are Salt Creek, Buffalo- 
Creek near its mouth, and the banks of the Papillon. The. 
next indication of it is at Tekama, from which place specimens 
were sent to the headquarters of the survey at Omaha. It is 
possible that it crosses the Missouri River south of this place, 
but no traces of it were observed as far north as De Soto. 

The red sandstone is overlaid by a greyish marl, which appears 
in the beds of the streams west of De Soto and again at Logan 
Creek, where it was struck in the shaft sunk on the thin lignite 
seam, No fossils were seen in it, and but for the fact that it appears 
to contain several thin seams of lignite it would have been impos- 
sible to distinguish it from the ordinary clays found everywhere 
associated with the drift. This clay contains limestone concretions, 
*vhich are sometimes of sufficient size to be burnt for lime. The* 
9 



18 



i 



surface does not of course give any indications of the presence of 
this clay. It is only seen in the bottoms of the streams whose 
banks are at least fifteen or twenty feet high, and in one or two 
shafts sunk for coal. The seams of lignite can generally be traced 
by the presence of the hydrated sesquioxide of iron in the banks 
of the streams. The thickest of these lignite seams does not ex- 
ceed six inches. It is said, however, that on the northern 
boundary of the Territory they are sometimes found of sufficient 
thickness to work. 

West of Logan Creek no rock appears in place on the north 
bank of tlie Platte until we reach the Pawnee Reserve. 

On the south bank, however, at Skull Creek, we find a grey 
marl associated with a white limestone. These crop out in the 
bed of the stream near its mouth, where a thin bed of bituminous 
shale is found, which has given rise to some exploration and 
disappointment. The white limestone contains a number of fossils. 
A cast oi Ammonites percarinatus, what appeared to be a Baculite, 
and Inoceramus prohleinaticus, were found. The latter fossil 
is so abundant that it is almost impossible to break a piece of the 
rock without finding two or three very perfect impressions of it. 
The stream runs over the outcrops of these rocks for some dis- 
tance, and the banks are cut down through the marl and lime- 
stone to the depth of fifteen feet. 

These marls are greyish and laminated when first taken out, 
but on exposure to the sun they grow whiter, and assume nearly 
the hardness and consistency of chalk, and are used as such by the 
settlers. 

West of Skull Creek no outcrops of rock were seen, and none 
had been reached by the wells of which information could be 
gained. In Beaver Creek, on the Pawnee Reserve, a blue marl, 
containing Ostrea congesta, is found in the bed of the stream. 
This marl is of different texture from that of Skull Creek, and is 
found much higher in the series. It grows hard on exposure, 
but not sufficiently to be used for building. The specimen 
examined was obtained from the bed of the creek by an Indian, 
who dove for it. 

DRIFT 

All of these rocks, where they are seen on the outcrops in the 
bluffs, are covered with a stratum of clay overlaid with gravel.^ 



19 

Wliere the rocks are compact, as is the case with some of the 
sandstones of the Cretaceous and the limestones of the Carbon- 
iferous, the line of demarcation between the two is perfect. Else- 
where, it is somewhat confused. The clay varies in depth and is 
generally of a bluish color. The gravel is made up of every 
variety of material. Generally it shows no sign of stratifica- 
tion. Occasionally, however, it presents a stratified apjDearance, 
and shows the very changeable nature of the current which 
deposited it. This disposition is not continuous, being shown 
only occasionally, and then over a very small area. It can be 
seen in the strippings of earth made to get at the rock below. 

When the rocks are hard, the surface in immediate contact 
with the gravel is polished and striated. The strise run S. 8° E. 
They were traced over the Hme-rocks from Omaha to Platts- 
mouth, and there is little doubt that they will be found wherever 
the rock has been strong enough to resist disintegration. 

The lower part of the gravel is made up of coarse material 
of variable size. Pieces of argillaceous iron ore, evidently from 
the destruction of the Cretaceous sandstone higher up the river, 
were found, with other boulders several cubic inches in size. 

The coarse gravel gradually passes into a fine sand, which is 
almost pure quartz. 

This drift is not unfrequently ten to fifteen feet in thickness, 
and is composed of materials of every possible description. As we 
should expect from the direction of the strise, it is composed 
of the metamorphic and sedimentary rocks which are found 
further north. 'No fossils were seen, except on Skull Creek, 
where a boulder of limestone was found containing a Silurian 
fossil. 

Most of the sedimentary rocks which occur further north 
arc too friable to withstand attrition, and for that reason 
are rarely represented in the di'ift. Occasionally, large rounded 
pieces of iron ore are found, several cubic inches in size. All the 
materials which compose this drift are water-worn and well 
rounded. 

As we go west from the Missouri, as on the banks of the Elk- 
horn, we find this drift composed almost exclusively of quartz. 
Its thickness can rarely be measured, except in the blufis. 
It is seen, however, very frequently in the wells dug by the 
farmers, showing its distribution over a large area. 



20 



1 



As it overlies all of the rocks of the country it frequently 
forms a talus over them, where they would otherwise outcrop, 
thus concealing them from view. 

BLUFF FOKMATIOlSr. 

The gravel is everywhere overlaid by the yellow siliceous marl 
of the bluffs. As we approach Omaha from the Missouri bottoms, 
this bluff formation is the most noticeable feature of the scenery. 
It usually forms the third terrace from the stream, separating the 
bottoms from the high rolling prairie. These bluffs stand almost 
vertical, and at Omaha are nearly sixty feet high. In some places 
they are much higher. They are composed of a yellow siliceous 
marl, which contains pieces of chalk, calcareous nodules, usually 
not larger than two or three inches in diameter, and some terres- 
trial and fluviatile shells. When this marl falls, it breaks off in 
vertical columns, and forms a talus of no great height at a very 
steep angle. 

The soil rests upon this marl, and not unfrequently the 
waters which filter through, absorb sufficient lime in their pas- 
sage to cement the gravel beneath, giving it the appearance 
of a rock in place. In some places, as at Lime Kiln Hollow, 
in Iowa, this process has gone on to such an extent as 
to form a complete conglomerate. Lying between the marl 
and the limestone, it forms a terrace of its own, from which 
large slabs of conglomerate fi-equently slide down to the 
bottoms. These terraces can always be recognized at a dis- 
tance by the very yellow color of the grass. They occur rarely, 
having only been noticed where the drift was high in the bluffs 
on the Iowa side. 

This phenomenon is also observable on a large scale a few miles 
above Florence, in the bluffs. A large stream issues near their 
base over the conglomerate thus cemented, while the gravel is 
found in place on either side, only a short distance from them. 
North of Council Bluffs, on the opposite side of the river, in a 
similar situation, this action has taken place to such an extent 
as not only to cement the rock, but also to form a considerable 
deposit of tafa over it. Where the rocks come near the surface, 
the cracks which they contain are filled with concretionary lime 
deposits, and when the outcrop is buried in the soil, it is fre- 
quently covered with concretionary white limestone. 



21 

The yellow marl underlies the whole of the rolling prairie 
further west, and in the hills is often found to a very great depth. 
The water of the wells is usually found on reaching the gravel 
beneath it, and is, consequently, all hard. 

The marl is seen in all the cuttings of the Railroad, where 
it shows its peculiar character, refusing to take a talus, and fall- 
ing off vertically. After passing the Elkhorn, it begins to thin, 
and at Shins Ferry, fifteen miles east of Columbus, it is not more 
than five feet thick in the high bottoms on the south bank. It 
does not, however, within the first hundred miles grow so thin as 
to lose its efliect on the vegetation of the country, rendering it 
everywhere luxurious. Wherever on the river-iront it comes 
near tlie surface, " oak openings " are found. In a few places 
on the Platte bottom the soil is sandy, owing to the fact that the 
river has several times changed its channel, leaving sand ridges 
behind it. These ridges are not entirely sterile, since the Platte 
sand is mixed with some loam ; but in comparison with the rich 
bottoms, they appear poor. They are, however, susceptible of 
cultivation. For such places the marl would be an excellent 
dressing. In some places where the wind has acted upon these 
sands, it has sifted out the loam, and the residue is almost pure 
quartz sand. 

This siliceous marl of the bluff formation is seen in its great- 
est development on the banks of the Missouri near De Soto, at 
Rockport, about ten miles north of Omaha, and on the Elkhorn 
near Iron Bluff. 

At De Soto it is not less than 100 feet thick, standing vertical 
in the Bluffs ; at Eockport it has about the same thickness, resting 
on gravel, which, near springs, is cemented into conglomerate. 

In most places it contains a large number of shells, among 
which the species Helix, Planorhis, and Physa were recognized. 

The marl is everywhere filled with calcareous concretions 
which are usually hollow, and it is penetrated in every direction 
to a considerable depth by round holes, formed by the decay ol 
the roots of trees. The gophers and ground-squirrels are always 
busy making their holes, and these passages form together a sys- 
tem of natural di-ainage, which in the low lands prevents too great 
an accumulation of water, and at the same time does not afford a 
sufiiciently easy flow to cause the higher lands to lose their mois- 
ture too quickly. 



22 



SOIL. 

The vegetable mould rests directly upon tlie yellow marl. It 
has a brownish-black color, and when dry breaks up into angular 
fragments, and crumbles easily when pressed between the fingers. 
When wet it is tough : a few moments' rain is sufiicient to make 
the roads very heavy. Half a day of wind or sun will, however, 
dry them. When the weather has been dry for a long time, the 
tires polish their tracks, and the roads become nearly as hard as 
if they were macadamized. Dust does not usually collect so as 
to make the roads heavy. It is generally blown off by the 
wind, and it requires long-continued dry weather to cause it to 
accumulate. 

This soil has evidently been formed by the growth and decay 
of plants on the spot, aided for a long series of years by the 
accumulation of the ashes of the plants which have been burned, 
and the gradual admixture of the marl with them. It is generally 
free from sand except in isolated spots in the bottoms of the rivers. 
Clay is rarely found vrithin the first 100 miles, except near the 
banks or in the beds of a few streams, or where the clays of the 
Cretaceous period come to the surface. 

A characteristic of this soil, underlaid as it everywhere is by 
the siliceous marl, is, that it is able to withstand long-continued 
drought as well as frequent heavy rains. The farmer is rarely 
disappointed in obtaining a fair average crop, while with mod- 
erate care, in ordinary years, the harvest is abundant. 

The native prairie grasses grow luxuriantly in most places, 
and are found well adapted to raising stock of all kinds, which 
fatten upon them as well as upon the cultivated grasses of the East- 
ern States. When the native grasses disappear, either from culti- 
vation or too much grazing, they are easily replaced by the 
cultivated grasses, which thrive here as well as in the East. 

The effect of the geology of the coimtry upon the soil is not 
so apparent here as it is in the northwestern part of the Territory, 
where the Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks come to and compose 
the surface, and have gained for that part of Nebraska and Dacotah 
the name of Bad Lands. 

The influence of the Carboniferous rocks is seen mainly in the 
character of the wash of the rivers. The rocks crop out in a very 
few places, and then only in the bluff, where they are covered to 



23 

a considerable depth by the drift and marl. Where the banks of 
tlie rivers are formed by the rocks, the limestones are carried 
only a short distance from their outcrops, and are either buried in 
the talus or in the bottoms. The clays and softer slates are 
washed out with the detritus of the lime-rocks, and go to make 
the soil of the bottoms. 

The same is true of the rocks of the Cretaceous formation, but 
these, from their much more friable nature, are more likely to 
extend their influence further, rendering the soil sandy, or stift 
and clayey, according as one or another of the rocks comes near 
the surface. Neither of these influences predominates within the 
limits of this survey to such au extent as to interfere with the fer- 
tility of the soil. Such soils rarely extend beyond the limits of 
the talus of the hills, and they can always be rendered fertile 
by means of the sub-soil plough. 

The soil varies somewhat with its position relative to the 
river-beds. In the bottoms it is entirely alluvial, and is com- 
posed of the wash of all the geological formations above, as 
well as of the alluvium of the rivers themselves, which contains 
a large admixture of lime and loam. When these bottoms 
are sufficiently above the first terrace to be beyond the dan- 
ger of overflow in the spring freshets, they are cultivated, and 
yield a very abundant crop. On the Missouri, ^vhen they are be- 
low this level, and are subject to the overflow, they are generally 
covered with a dense growth of cotton-wood. The size of these 
trees depends on the fickle nature of the current. Sometimes 
they grow to be three and four feet in diameter ; and at others, 
they are washed out in the first or second year of their growth. 
The bottoms of the streams west of the Missouri, being less sub- 
jected to overflow, have much less timber — which is more frequently 
oak, elm, and other hard woods — than on the Missouri bottoms. 

The separation between the second and third river-terrace on 
the Missouri, is usually an escarpment from sixty to one hundred 
feet high, of the yellow, siliceous marl. It is this bluff which is 
cut down to furnish the material for making bricks. At Omaha, 
and elsewhere, this bluff rises vertically. Council Bluffs is 45 
feet above the river ; and the rise is so gradual that the line 
between the bottoms and the third terrace is scarcely per- 
ceptible. 

The soil ou the third terrace is made up of vegetable mould. 



24 

The same is true of the valleys in the rolls of the prairie. The 
rain washes it off from the surface, and collects the ashes of the 
plants and the black soil. In such situations, it is not unusual to 
Und this loam from twenty to thirty feet thick, and eveii thicker. 
It is rarely less than two or three feet in thickness. As it is 
always underlaid by the marl, it is more or less calcareous, and 
in the best possible condition to yield an abundant harvest. 

As we rise to the fourth and highest terrace, which forms the 
actual divide of the waters, we find the black soil growing thin- 
ner from the constant wash, and the marl approaching nearer the 
surface. In very many places, the surface of this terrace is cov- 
ered with siliceous and other pebbles, and occasionally with small 
boulders of granite. These pebbles do not appear to extend to 
any depth in the soil. They are not usually seen in the earth 
thrown out by gophers in digging their holes. 

Between the bottoms on this terrace, the country is formed of 
rolling prairie, which is almost destitute of timber ; occasionally, 
a clump of trees is found near the banks of some stream, or around 
some slough, but there is never enough for agricultural purposes. 
The soil is, however, fertile, and is covered with a luxuriant 
growth of grass. This ground is admirably adapted for raising 
stock of all kinds. Springs are not found as frequently as on the 
bottoms, but they are found occasionally, and their scarcitv 
is not felt, from the general abundance of sloughs. Water is usual- 
ly reached at a depth of from thirty to sixty feet, in the valleys. 

It will be seen that the soils are of two general characters ; the 
alluvial, which forms the bottoms of all the rivers ; and the bluff, 
which is characteristic of all the rolling prairie. 

The alluvial soil is always rich. It is porous, slightly cal- 
careous, and siliceous at the same time. It bears by far the 
greater portion of the timber of the Territory, in whjch the cot- 
ton-wood largely predominates. It is usually so near the level 
of the rivers as not to suffer from drought until some time after 
tlie stream itself is dry. It always produces a luxuriant growth 
of grasses and corn. In many places wild hemp grows, to the 
exclusion of the grasses. Such spots as these furnish protection 
to the seeds of trees, and are often covered, after a short time, by 
groves of trees. Where these bottoms are subject to overflow, 
they are sometimes sandy; but generally the soil is enriched 
by the top-dressing deposited upon it. 



25 

The bluff soil is tliat formed upon and partly made np of the 
yellow marl of the bluffs. The mineral constituents of this soil 
are such^ and in such physical condition, as to adapt it admirably 
for agricultm-al purposes. Wherever this soil exists to its fullest 
extent the lands are rich, but not so rich as the bottoms. The 
vegetable mould is never so deep, and it is consequently better 
adapted to sustain long-continued drought. The farmers were 
at loss to explain why it was that crops on their high lands 
were less affected by drought than those on the low. This is 
easily explained, both by the easy drainage of the bottom-lands, 
from the porous nature of the soil, and their proximity to the 
borders of the streams, as well as by the nature of the bluff-soil, 
which loses its water much less easily. 

Corn, wheat, and oats grow luxuriantly upon this soil. "Where 
the current of a stream strikes the bluffs and causes a movement 
in them, wild hemp and native grape-vines spring up in profusion. 
On some of the small streams the hemp and grape-vine together 
make a thicket which it is diflficult to penetrate. When this soil 
is broken up by the plough, in the Autumn, to the depth of two or 
three inches, it will be in excellent condition for cultivation in the 
Spring, and it yields very large crops, sometimes even larger than 
the apparently richer bottom-lands. Ground which has been 
broken in the Spring even, produces a fair crop. This soil has 
been enriched every year for centuries by the burning or decay 
of the grass, and as little or nothing of the mineral element is 
ever taken away, the ground grows richer every year. 

Care must, however, be taken with it in ploughing, for as 
there are no trees to arrest the rain, the ploughed ground is sub- 
ject to wash. Attention must be paid to this fact by the farmer 
in selecting his ground for planting. 

In the high rolling prairie, and along the backbone, this soil has 
been subject to wash for a long period, which has left it poorer and 
more sandy than the other soils. The surface is strewn with various 
kinds of pebbles. It is on this soil that the wind and storms 
produce the little terraces which give a very peculiar character 
to the landscape. The gophers and ground-squirrels, however, 
have shown that this land is in no sense sterile, for wherever they 
have thrown up the dirt fi-ora their holes the grasses show the 
benefit of subsoil cultivation. A subsoil plough and a little manure 
will make such land quite as productive as other soils; and while 



26 

the fanner who has a better ground may feel himself justified in 
neglecting it, a little care bestowed here will in many cases be 
more than an equivalent for the extra fertility of the richer soil. 

BOULDERS. 

West of the Elkhom erratic boulders of red quartz and granite 
begin to appear in the hills. They are usually found on the sides 
of the rolls of the prairie. These boulders are rarely larger 
than fi'om one to four cubic feet, and are well worn on the edges. 
Smaller pieces of chlorite slate and diorite are . occasionally 
found with them. The hills upon which these boulders of quartz 
and granite are fomid are usually covered with small and much- 
worn pieces of chalcedony jasper and wood-opal, and occasionally 
pebbles of limestone. Only one piece was found large enough to 
contain a fossil, which was Strojphomyna alter iiata^ showing the 
rock to be Silurian. All these rocks are found in abundance 
further north, in Dacotah, Iowa, and Minnesota. 



^5 



FOKMATIO]Sr OF THE KOLLHSTG- PRAIRIE. 

It is more than probable that the whole of the rolling 
prairie of this country was originally level. *Che older streams, 
like the Platte, the Elkhorn, the Loup Fork, the Papillon and 
Shell Creek, appear to have given the first general outline to the 
topography of the country. These are confined within broad 
bottoms, and change their channel. Smaller streams are, how- 
ever, constantly forming, and the minor topography is every- 
where being changed by the wash of the Spring rains, or other 
causes. It is not an unfrequent thing, while riding along the 
bottom, between two rolls of the high prairie, to find that it sud- 
denly descends almost vertically from five to ten feet, giving 
unmistakable evidence of a recent freshet. 

If any doubt, however, should exist in regard to it, the for- 
mation of the rolling prairie can be seen actually going on at 
De Soto. Just above the town, in the blufi*s, many earth-canons 
are being formed at the present time'. There are quite a number 
of them parallel to one another, and nearly at right angles to the 
Missouri Kiver. Two of them were traced from their origia, which 
were over a quarter of a mile in length. They have once cut ofl 
the road leading north along the blufis, and are now rapidly en- 
croaching on it again. 



27 

These canons vary from sixty to eighty feet in height, and are 
from fifty to two hundred feet broad. Their walls are vertical, 
and when they fall, either by becoming detached from the bank 
and falling over, or by being washed out from underneath and 
settling down, they leave a vertical face. 

The caiion commelaces generally in a hole made b}' a snake or 
a gopher, or in a crack made by the frost. When any part falls 
it does not crumble entirely, as we might expect, but carries down 
with it large trees, which continue to grow erect. This settling 
appears to take place gradually, and its effects can be seen from 
the bottom to the top, in terraces in all stages of descent. As 
the valley widens the water has less scope for energetic action. 
The action of the waters on the sides of the canon begins to 
round off the banks and to form depressions which gradually 
become deeper, until we have the whole series of subordinate 
valleys, both on a large and a small scale. 

The same phenomenon can be seen on a much smaller scale 
at Salt Creek, where an earth-canon recently formed has advanced 
through the bluff into the road south of the town. 

It can also be seen in the high bluffs about a mile north of 
Council Bluffs on the Missouri. 

The deepening of the valleys between the rolls of the prairie 
is accompanied also by the destruction of the crest of the hill 
where the incline becomes steep. 

In the valleys which run in the direction of the prevailing 
wind, earth-terraces about six inches high are formed by the action 
of the storms, which facilitates the erosive action of the water. 



CLIMATE. 

The limits of the survey are comprised between 40° 40' 
and 41° 50'. Within these limits very few meteorological obser- 
vations have been made, except by the observers of the Smith- 
sonian Institution of Washington, D. C. It is to them that we 
are indebted for all the accarate records that have been made 
of the climate of the Territory. The following tables have been 
compiled from the published documents of this Institution. Table 
No. 1 contains the observations taken at Bellevue arid Elkhorn 
City for the years 1863 and 1864. Table No. 2 gives the mean 
temperature for every month, season, and year, from 1858 to 



28 



1864. 



Table 'No. 3 shows the amount of raiu, in inches, which 



has fallen, and the average for each season and year. Table 4 
gives the observations for temperature at the same parallel further 
East. These observations have been made for too short a period, 
and over too limited an extent of territory, to admit of drawing 
anything more than very general conclusions. Blanks in the 
columns signify that no observations have been recorded. The 
temperature is indicated in degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. 
A dash ( — ) signifies degrees below zero. 



TABLE, No. 1 . 

ELKHORN CITY. 

1863. 



Date, 

Maximum Temperature, . 
Date, 

Minimum Temperature,. 

Mean Temperature, 

Eain and Melted Snow,.. 



Jan. 


I'eh. 


Mar. 


Apl. 


May 


Jtme 


July 


Auff. 


JSept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


2 


27 


21 


17 


19,20 


2.- 


9,10 


*lrt 




*16 


*6,18 


51 


46 


68 


88 


86 


96 


96 


96 




70 


60 


16 


2 


4 


3 


5 


21 


16 


29 




23 


23 


- 9 


- 6 


S 


27 


45 


52 


56 


35 




4 


— 15 


2S.6 


•23.5 
0.90 


3.5-J 


53.8 


63.8 


67.89 


72.6 


72.5 
2.70 




36.6 
0.50 


32.9 
2..30 



Dec. 

*3, 23 
41 
31 

— 28 
IS. 4 
2.90 



1864. 



Date, [26,27 

Maximum Temperature,. 

Date, 

Minimum Temperature, . 

Mean Temperature, [16.1 

Kain and Melted Snow, 



Jan. 


F^b. 


Mar 


Apl. 


May 


June 


July 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


26, 27 


22 


3 


25 


29 


21 


18 


24 


2 


13 


5 


49 


65 


67 


79 


94 


101 


100 


99 


99 


70 


56 


7 


17 


20 


5 


10 


6 


2 


17,18 


24 


18,28 


22 


— 22 


— 3 


6 


2S 


33 


50 


no 


57 


32 


26 


1 


16.1 


30.8 


33. 


46.3 


63.6 


74.9 


77.1 


74. 


66.4 


44.8 


33.1 



* These observations were taken at Fontenelle. 



BELLEVUE 



1863. 



Date, 

Maximum Temperature, 
Date, 

Minimum Temperature, 

Mean Temperature, 

Bain and Melted Snow,. 



Jan. 
4 
59 
16 



Feb. 
18 
50 

1,2 
2 



Mar. 
21 

70 
4 

7 



Apl. 
17 



31. 26.3 87. 52.3 63. 67.50 71. 
0.75 0.56, 0.50 0.75l 3.SS 2.84' 2.25 



May\June\ July 
15 "- " 
87 

6,23 
40 



Aug. 



Sept. 
14 



Oct. 

6,11 

70 

31 

14 



Nov. 

6,18 

60 

28 

— 3 



65. 42.5 35.7 25.4 
1.75 1.00 1.65 8.85 



Dec. 



315 
20 



1864. 





Jan. 
27 
53 

1 
- 17 
18.7 
0.41 


Feb. 
22 
66 

16,17 
— 2 

31.6 


Mar. 

8 

65 

20 

7 

35. 


Apl. 
25 
78 
2 
28 
45.2 
2.40 


May 
29 
8S 
11 
82 
60.6 
1.32 


June 
20 
95 
1,6 
53 
73.7 
2.86 


July 

17, IS 

93 

2 

60 

77.9 

0.74 


AUQ. 

24 
91 

IS 

58 

75 2 


Sept. Oct. 
2 1 

99 71 
24, 30 2S. 29 

40 1 28 
67.4 46.6 


Nov. 

5.6 

56 

22 

3 

84.8 

1.45 


Dec 
1 


Maximum Temperature,. . . 


50 
8 


Minimum Temperature, . . . 


— 14' 
19.9 


Eain and Melted Snow 


1.48 


1.77 4.23 


0.34 



29 



TABLE, No. 2. 





Average 
1858. 


Average 
1859. 
20.1 
22.4 
23.8 


Average for 
Six Years. 


Average 
1863. 


Average 
1864. 




22.0 
32.9 
17.3 


22.6 
21.8 
22.6 


20.1 
29.8 
24.9 


21 9 


January, 


17 4 




81 2 






Winter average, 


24.0 


22.1 


22.3 


24.9 


23.5 




44.7 
48.2 
53.1 


39.8 
41.4 
64.6 


40.2 
48.0 
58.7 


86.1 
53.1 
63.4 


84.0 




45.8 


May, 


63.6 


Spring average, 


48.6 


48.6 


48.9 


50.8 


47.8 




74.5 
76.8 
73.6 


71.0 

77.7 
73.8 


70 

77.1 

73.7 


67.7 
71.8 
72.5 


74.3 


July, 

August, 


77.5 
74.6 




74.9 


74.1 


73.6 


70.6 


75.4 








64. 9 
51.9 
31.0 


63.0 
51.6 
37.3 


67.7 
54.1 
33.4 


66.5 
89.6 
89.3 


66.9 




45.7 


November, 


33.7 


Fall average, 


52.6 


50.6 


51.7 


48.1 


48.7 


Mean Temperature, 


50.0 


48.8 


49.1 


48.6 


48.8 



TABLE, No. 3, 





185S. 


1859. 


Min. of 
(SicB Years. 


1863. 


18C4. 


December, 1857, 

January, 


0.80 
1.82 
0.80 


0.90 
0.94 
0.63 


0.70 
1.38 
0.74 


0.70 
0.75 
0.73 


3.40 
0.41 


March, 




Winter Total, 


3.42 


2.52 


2.82 


2.18 


8.81 


Winter Average, 


1.14 


0.84 
1.73 
1.64 
5.60 


0.94 


0.72 


1.90 




1.60 
5.05 
4.40 


1.76 
3 44 

5.00 


0.50 
0.75 






2.40 


May, 




Spring Total, 


11.25 


8.97 


9.20 


1.25 


2.40 


Spring Average, 


3.75 


2.99 


3.06 


0.41 


2.40 




7.10 
15.80 
1.90 


2.80 
1.80 
1.80 


4.30 
6.40 
4.40 


2.80 
2.25 
2.70 


2 86 




74 


August, 


1.43 


Summer Total. 


24.80 


6.40 


15.10 


7.75 


5.08 


Summer Average, 


8.26 


2.13 


5.03 


2.58 

1 75 
75 

2 00 


1.69 




2.60 
6.00 
0.60 


2 10 
1 30 
1 20 


2 40 
8 70 
1 20 
7 SO 


1 77 




4 23 




1 45 






Fall Total, 


9.20 


4 60 


4 50 


7 45 




8 06 


1 53 


2 48 


1 50 


2 48 






Yearly Total 


48 67 


22 49 


34 42 


15 68 


18 74 




4 05 


1 87 


2 87 


1 30 









30 



TABLE, No. 4, 



Burlinffton, N. J., 

Harrisbuvcr, Pa., 

Augusta, 111., ,. 

Newark, N. J., 

Easton, Pa., 

Loeaiisport, Ind., 

Madisiin, Ohio, 

New London, Conn.,. 
"West Point, N. T., .., 

Muscatine. Iowa, 

Council Bluffs 



N.Lat. 


Winter. 
32.10 


Spring. 


Summer. 


Fall. 


40. 


46.35 


70.55 


50.58 


40.16 


32.76 


48.79 


74.4 


55.75 


40.12 


26.86 


43.18 


72.05 


50.21 


40.45 


26.71 


45.43 


69.00 


52.70 


40.43 


28.45 


45.08 


68.66 


50.13 


40.45 


26.00 


42.66 


70.00 


51.00 


41.52 


28.89 


42.89 


67.82 


48.99 


41.32 • 


26.18 


43.33 


67.16 


52.66 


41.23 


29.7 


48.7 


71.3 


53.2 


41.25 


22. 


46.40 


70.44 


49.14 


41.15 


21.7 


49.3 


74.7 


51.4 



Year. 
50. 
52. 

43. 
48. 
48. 



47. 
48. 
50. 
47, 
49. 



These tables sliow the Spring and Summer to be warmer, and 
the Winter colder, in ISTebraska than on the same parallel further 
east. This is easily accounted for by the absence of trees. There , 
is no protection from the Summer sun, and the Winter winds have 
nothing to break their force. 

The distribution of rain shows an average for ten years of 
28 inches. The minimum was 15.68 in 1863, and the maximum 
was 48.67 in 1858. The amount is not quite equal to the average 
in Iowa. It is a well-kno^^m fact, howev^er, that the amount of 
rain diminishes as we go west of the Mississippi. It will be seen 
that the greatest amount falls in the Summer and Spring, and 
the least in the winter. 

The Winters are sometimes severely cold, the thermometer 
sinking at times several degrees below zero. The extreme cold 
does not continue for more than a few days. The mean tem- 
perature is not very low. The cold is, however, felt more keenly 
on account of the winds. Stock requires more protection, during 
most Winters, than in other climates of the same averai2:e tern- 
perature, but can sometimes be allowed to run at large, in places 
protected by trees, during the whole Winter. 

The prevailing winds are from the S. E., S. W. and JST. W. 
The storms usually come from the S. E. During the Summer, 
the sand upon the river-bottoms becomes dry. The prevailing 
summer winds are from the S. W,, and frequently carry 
it a little distance from the river and form slight sand-ridges 
running E". W. and S. E. This sand is frequently found on the 
line of the Eailroad, and is composed almost entirely of quartz, 
all the lighter materials having been separated from it. 

MISSOURI VALLEY. 

The eastern part of this survey embraces a narrow strip of 
land in the Missouri Yallej. The river runs very near the 



31 

bluff on its western side, so that the bottom .is narrow. Its posi- 
tion changes a little every year. Sandbars and islands are con- 
stantly forming or being washed out, so that land near the 
river is held by a very uncertain tenure. A single freshet often 
carries away a large number of acres of woodland, without leaving 
a landmark behind. Land is continually forming too, and 
proprietors who have the river for one of their boundaries often 
find that one acre has been increased to ten. Such land, being 
liable to the wash of the rivers, is rarely cultivated, and is left 
to the spontaneous growth of trees, which furnish the larger por- 
tion of the fire-wood of the eastern counties. Another large 
portion of this wood is drift, which is stranded on the islands in 
the river, and drawn away during the Winter over the ice. 

The sand of the river-banks mixes easily with water, and 
forms quicksand. On the banks proper, above the water, this 
sand is firm. At the water's edge, it ajppears to be so. If, how- 
ever, a slight movement is made from side to side by throwing 
the weight of the body first on one foot and then on the other, 
the sand soon separates into strata, with water between, which 
make long, low undulations, and in a few moments more be- 
come quicksand. When the undulations commence, a stick 
can be pushed down to almost any depth, by the slight pressure 
of the hand. A few inches above the level of the water, it is 
perfectly dry and hard. 

The bluifs of the river produce a large quantity of oak and 
other hard woods. In the vicinity of Omaha, and as high up as 
Rockpoi-t, the most of this wood has been or is now being cut ofi". 

Tlie soil is composed of black loam, and the surface above 
the bottoms and beyond the terraces is rolling prairie. 

Water is everywhere reached in the wells at from 30 to 60 
feet, according to the situation. 

PLATTE VALLEY. 

The width of the Platte bottoms is about three miles. They are 
exceedingly fertile, and are covered with a luxuriant growth of 
grass. As the river rarely if ever overflows its banks, they are 
well adapted for all agricultural purposes, and amply repay the 
least cultivation. For the first fifteen or twenty miles of its course, 
as we go west, rocks crop out in the blufis, and furnish a good qual- 
ity of bailding-stone. Red and yellow ochre are found on Pavv^- 



32 

nee Creek, and wiU probably answer for paints. Springs are 
frequently found issuing between tbe layers of the rocks. Sloughs 
of all sizes abound, which are frequently quite deep, and water can 
be reached very generally at the depth of from ten to twenty feet. 

iJ^J'ear its mouth the bottoms are covered with cotton-wood, and 
the bluff with " oak openings ;" but as we go west, the oak disap- 
pears, and the cotton-wood is the only tree, and is confined 
to the islands and to the banks of the stream. These oak groves 
are sometimes very extensive, as between Skull and Salt Creeks, 
on the south side of the Platte, and near Sauntee on the north 
side. Other timber, such as ash and elm, is sometimes mixed with 
the oak. Such groves of timber encroach very fast upon the 
prairie when the fires are kept out. Two or three places were seen 
where twenty or thirty acres had been overgrown with thick 
hard- wood brush, after keeping the fires out for three years. A 
little care in thinning out these trees would make the timber- 
lands valuable in a few years. 

The land is rich, except where the river has changed its course, 
or the wind has thrown up sand-ridges. The surface is so near 
the level of the river that water easily filters through the 
porous soil. When the surface falls to the level of the river the 
ground is moist. When it falls a little below, so as to form 
marshes, muck swamps are formed, which in dry seasons some- 
times take fire and burn. It is probable that such places will 
furnish a good quality of peat. 

In some of the islands of the Platte which are overgrown with 
cedar-trees, stock can be left to run all Winter. Where the 
farmers have sheltered their farms with trees, they have found no 
difiiculty in raising winter wheat, which has always yielded a 
very large crop. As we rise from the bottoms, we meet high 
rollino- prairie, which is generally destitute of trees except on 
the banks of the small streams, where the timber is usually oak. 

As we go west on the river, the soil becomes more and more 
sandy. At the mouth of the Loupe Fork, the soil is decidedly 
sandv, but not so much so as to interfere with its fertility. On the 
south side, above Premont, there are very few trees. In many 
places the groimd is covered with a tall bearded grass, which dis- 
appears wlien the groimd is cultivated. The soil contains more 
clay than on the north side. A short blue grass grows abundant- 
ly, which is very nutritious, and is eagerly sought after by cattle, 



1 



33 

and eaten off to the roots, in preference to the .other grasses which 
grow with it. The general yield of the crops, to the acre, is 
corn, 30 to 60 bushels ; wheat, 25 to 30 bushels ; sorghum (syrup) 
280 gallons. In extraordinary years, with good tillage, as much 
as 80 bushels of corn, 40 bushels of oats, and 400 gallons of 
sorghum have been produced. The wheat is spring wheat. 

PAPILLOlSr VALLEY. 

The valley of the Papillon does not differ from the valley of 
the Platte. The bottom is about one mile wide, and very fertile 
and well timbered. The character of the soil varies slightly with 
the rocks that outcrop, and this is more especially true of the 
red Cretaceous sandrock. Groves of hard timber are found occa- 
sionally, at some little distance from the streams. Peat-bogs have 
been found, but have not been worked. This valley is well set- 
tled, and the farms are in a higher state of cultivation here than 
anywhere except upon the Elkhorn. Large droves of stock of all 
kinds are herded on the rolling prairie. 

elkhor:^ valley. 

The banks of the Elkhorn are usually low, and the bottoms, 
like those of the Platte, which this river resembles very much, 
are rich, and generally well timbered. Some of the cotton- 
wood trees are five feet in diameter. Elm, maple, oak, and ash 
grow in small quantities on its tributaries, but the chief timber of 
the bottoms is cotton-wood. The timber is not wholly confined 
to the river-bank, but groves are found round the banks of the 
sloughs, giving a very picturesque appearance to the landscape. 

The second terrace is not very well defined ; the first terrace 
usually extends to the bluffs. The third terrace is, however, 
well marked, and furnishes quite a large amount of level prairie. 
There is also a considerable amount of level ground near the 
mouths of all the tributaries of the Elkhorn. 

This and the Papillon valley are the best cultivated of the 
region. The farmers have planted trees on a large scale, and are 
already reaping the advantages of it. The soil is very fertile. 
The average crops are : com, 40 to 60 bushels ; wheat, 12 to 18 ; 
sorghum, about 200 gallons. 
3 



34 

Small seams of lignite crop out in the banks of the river. This 
lio-nite and the rocks associated with it are filled with pyrites, so 
a? sometimes to render the water in the wells which reach it 
quite noxious and unlit for use. The water of ordinary wells, 
however, generally reached in a few feet from the surface, does not 
contain anything more than salts of lime. 

PEBBLE AND MAPLE VALLEYS. 

The branches of the Elkhorn do not differ from it in their main 
features. The most prominent of them are Pebble and Maple 
Creeks. The banks of these streams are quite high, and they are 
subject to sudden rises and falls. The bottoms of Pebble 
Creek are about a mile wide. The soil is rich and easily worked. 
The blue grass, which is so eagerly sought for by stock, is frequent- 
ly found, both on the bottoms and the high prairie. Near its 
junction with the Elkhorn the bottoms are well timbered; for 
the most part with oak and elm. Farther west, the timber de- 
creases, especially as we reach the point where the streams are 
liable to run dry for a certain time during the year. There is 
considerable wet land in the bottoms, and peat will probably 
be found there. The average crops are : corn, 60 to 80 bushels ; 
wheat, 15 to 20 ; sorghum, 150 to 200 gallons. 

The bottom-lands of Maple Creek are from one to one and a 
half miles wide, and the divide is made up of gently undulating 
prairie. The bottoms contain considerable hard timber, but it 
is usually scattered and in clumps. 

SHELL CKEEK VALLEY. 

The bottom-land of Shell Creek Valley is from one to two 
miles wide. It is the most beautiful valley on the north side 
of the Platte. The divide is broad, composed of gently undu- 
lating prairie, and well watered with streams, as may be seen 
by reference to the map. Sloughs are of less frequent occur- 
rence than in the valleys of the other streams. Hard tim- 
ber is found along the banks, which are quite high. All 
the smaller streams flowing into it are subject to great 
fluctuations. The average crops to the acre are : corn, 40 to 60 ;« 
wheat, 12 to 16 bushels. 



35 

On the south side of the Platte the countiy is higher, but in 
its main features does not differ from the north side. The char- 
acter of the land is nearly the same. The amount of timber is 
considerably less. 

The valleys of the two principal streams, Skull and Salt 
Creeks, do not differ from those of the streams l!Torth. The water 
of Salt Creek is slightly brackish in low water. 

AGKICULTUHE. 

Farming is conducted throughout the Territory without any 
regard to the future value of the land. The country is but thinly 
settled ; the land is cheap, and its owners are too frequently 
either ignorant that their system of farming is exhausting the 
soil, or indifferent to it. Yery little if any manure is used, and, 
except in rare instances, the manm-e of the stable and farm- 
yard is either carted into the road or thrown into pits. The 
farmers find it too much trouble to place it on their fields, be- 
cause they think the soil so rich that there is no danger of ex- 
hausting it. They generally plant the same crop year after 
year, and when the land no longer yields sufficiently, the field 
is abandoned. This injudicious system is ameliorated by the 
fact that large portions of the Territory are devoted to grazing. 
The manure of the stock restores to the soil a large part of the 
mineral constituents taken from it, thus contributing to enrich the 
ground which is not cultivated. The cultivated soils are allowed 
to regain their fertility by rest and the accumulation of the ashes 
of the weeds. 

The farmers in Iowa are commencing to learn, by theii* 
decreasing crops, that such a system will eventually wear out 
their land. The farmers in Virginia and New York have already 
learned it. If the soil is to remain fertile, the farmer must return 
to it a portion, at least, of the mineral constituents which the plant 
removes from it, in about the same physical condition as the 
plant found them ; for the fertility of the soil does not depend bo 
much on the exact proportion of the ingredients it contains, as it 
does upon its physical condition, which renders them more or less 
easy of absorption by the plant. If, under the stimulus of large 
crops and a ready market, the soil is robbed, the large crop will 
soon become a small one, and the rich bottom-lands will refuse 



36 

to yield, as they have done in Yirginia. The soil, if it is to be 
rich, must be kept so, and its constituents taken away in the 
crops must be restored to it. The reason why the lands are so 
rich now, is that the ashes of the plants have been restored to 
the soil every year, either by the decay of the plant or the burn- 
ing of the prairie. Where these ashes have accumulated a short 
bluish grass grows, which is so nutritious that the cattle seek 
it first. 

It is a very easy thing for the short-sighted farmer to raise 
from twenty to thirty bushels of spring wheat for four or five 
years successively from the same land ; but if such a system is 
continued, it will reduce the crop, as it has done in some places 
in !N^ew York, to five. 

The average yield of the ground can be kept up by changing 
the crop, top-dressing, and subsoil ploughing. The use of the 
subsoil plough is especially beneficial in all parts of the country 
where the bluft'-marl comes near the surface. This marl contains 
a certain percentage of silica and lime, and is frequently the only 
manure the soil needs. Farmers were found surprised and de- 
lighted with crops produced where a little unintentional subsoil 
cultivation had mixed this marl with the soil, and equally disap- 
pointed at the results of surface cultivation near by, where the 
ground had not been turned more than two inches, even when 
top-dressed. 

Most of the crops are raised by machine-labor, for which tlio 
nature of the surface is very well adapted. This is necessary, on 
account of the scarcity of laborers and the high wages demanded. 
Ground which is broken during the Summer with the prairie- 
plough, to the depth of two or three inches, and planted the 
next Spring, yields abundant crops. Even when the ground 
is ploughed in the Spring and planted, it produces a fair crop. 
These crops are usually put in, cultivated, and reaped by machines, 
at a much less expense and with greater yield than could be ob- 
tained by hand-labor. 

Lands designed for grazing in the Spring, are burned over in 
the Fall, in order to secure a sweet and early grass for the stock. 
In the Spring, the portion destined for hay is burned again. 
The grass is cut and the hay made entirely by machine, and is 
stacked in the fields or near the house for winter use. 

Buildings used for the protection of stock during the Winter 



3T 

are generally raade of poles. The sides are woven witli hay. To 
form a roof, poles are placed close together, hay is laid over them, 
other poles are fastened at right angles to these over the hay, thus 
making a tight and secure roof against both rain and wind. 

ISTot unfrequently these buildings, as well as the dwellings, are 
made of pieces of turf piled together and cut smooth with a spade. 
This kind of construction makes a very warm dwelling and a 
cheap shelter for stock. Tlic log or frame houses of some of 
the best farmers frequently have their additions constructed 
iu this manner. They last a long time and are easily repaired. 

All garden vegetables are easily cultivated, and do well. 
Fruit, however, does not thrive unless it is protected against 
the high winds. The wild plum grows with great luxuriance 
in small natural orchards. The plums are gathered by the far- 
mers and preserved for winter use. 

It is probable that if the system of low training in use in some 
countries were adopted here, the culture of fruit-trees would be 
more successful. The low tree protects itself, while the tall one 
is frequently thrown out of the ground by the wind. If the 
ground were devoted exclusively to fruit, and the trees trimmed 
low and planted nearer together, they would protect themselves 
and yield abundant crops. 

The average yield of the crops of the whole Territory, for the 
years 1863 and 1864, is given below. The statistics for 1865 have 
not yet been published. All these crops, with the single excep- 
tion of potatoes, are above the average yield for the whole United 
States, in 1864, while those for 1863 far exceed it. These statis- 
tics have been compiled from the Eeports of the Patent Office. 

1SC3. 1864. 

Sprinff Wheat. .20 bx:sliels to the acre 14 bushels to the acre. 

Rye 30 " " " .... 16 

Barley 43 " " " .... 20 " " 

Oats 33 " " " .... 28 " " 

Corn 33.5 " " " .... 28.5 » " 

Potatoes 82.5 " " " .... 51.6 " " 

Hay 1.25tons" " .... 1.3tons " " 

TABLE OF STOCK FOR 1864. 

Number. Average Price. 

Horses 9,687 $ 85.79 

Mules 1,130 121 . 90 

Oxen 53,606 26 . 46 

Cows 17,449 30.63 

Sheep 10,872 3.10 

Ho"-3 32,889 9.93 



38 



FENCES. 

Most of the farmers fence their land witli wood. The whole 
farm is usually included in one enclosm-e. The fence consists 
of upright posts, to which either split rails or young saplings are 
nailed. Some of the fences are made of boards. The rail 
fences are generally made of oak and cotton-wood. The islands 
of the Platte abound in cedar, which furnishes the posts for many 
farmers. The posts are sometimes made of locust, when it can 

be had. 

Occasionally trees such as the cotton-wood, locust, and white 
willow, are planted for hedges, and after a few years afford very 
good protection against animals. 

Hedges are growing in favor, and have been, successfully cul- 
tivated in many parts of the Territory. 

When wood cannot be had, it is the custom to dig a ditch 
and throw up the earth so as to form a mound. This aiiswers 
for protection against stock. 

The willow or cotton-wood fence is easiest made. It can be 
made from large cuttings. If these cuttings are taken from one 
to two inches in diameter, and five feet long, and are planted nine 
inches apart, twigs can be twined between them immediately, so 
that they will form a good fence. Almost all of the cuttings are 
sure to grow, and in a few years the tops will furnish a consid- 
erable amount of fire-wood. This system has been put into prac- 
tice successfully in some portions of France and California. 

The stock is allowed to run at large over the prairie, the farmers 
being generally responsible to each other for the damage done by 
trespass. Where there are no fences, there is usually a herd-law. 
The cattle are herded for so much a head, and the herder made 
responsible for damage done. 

TREE PLAISTTHSTG. 

The greatest want of the country is timber. Until within 
comparatively few years, the prairie-fires have killed the young 
growths, except in places where there was some natural protec- 
tion against them, as on the banks of sloughs or streams, or in 
some bottoms of the rivers. 

This defect can be easily remedied, as there are several kinds 
of trees which grow rapidly after a year or two of protection. 



1 



39 

On all the bottom-lands the cotton-wood {Popuhis Monilifera, 
Gray), grows readily, and without cultivation. In many places 
the farmers plough and weed it out, to prevent its taking posses- 
sion of their lands. It also grows well on the higher lands, 
especially when its roots can penetrate the yellow siliceous marl. 
In five or six years the cotton-wood is large enough to be cut for 
fire-wood, and it is very doubtful whether any crop the farmer 
can plant will yield him such ample returns. 

The scrub oak, the common and the slippery elm, ash, walnu 
and hickory, grow on the bluffs of almost all the rivers. This 
blufi-soil seems to be particularly adapted to the oak, which 
sends its roots down into it to a considerable depth. "When these 
roots die, the marl becomes filled with holes, and more or 
less porous. Wherever this soil comes near the surface, groves 
of hard timber spring up. On Pawnee Creek and at Fairview 
large tracts of hard- wood brush were seen, which had been pro- 
tected from the fires for three years, and which, in the course of 
one or two years more, would no longer require watching. A 
little judicious thinning out is all this brush needs to make it 
valuable timber in the course of ten or fifteen years. 

Trees are easily cultivated if a little attention is given to 
them ; they require less care than any other crop, and will yield 
larger returns. Every farmer should plant trees, not only be- 
cause he needs the wood for fuel, but because they are needed 
for building, for fences, and to protect his stock. 

It is a fact well known to eastern farmers that grain which is 
protected from the winds by trees, even though the trees are at 
some diftance, is less likely to be winter-killed. Their protec- 
tion is not only required for grain, but also for fruit as well as for 
stock. There are many places on the plains where fruit 
will not grow unless protected against the winds by trees. Many 
of the farmers in the eastern counties are beginning to see the im- 
portance of this, and have been planting extensively within the 
last four or five years. They feel the effects of the trees almost 
immediately in the increase of their crops and in the comfort of 
their houses. One of them, who had planted three years 
before, remarked that he could see a very perceptible differ- 
ence in the amount of fuel consumed, and in the yield of wool 
from his sheep. He found less liability to disease, and a very 
marked difierence in the general condition of all his stock, so 



40 

nmcli so that lie should continue to plant. Trees are not only a 
protection against the cold produced by the high prairie-winds, 
but they are also a protection against the hot sun of the Summer 
and form a very grateful refuge for stock. 

Many of the farmers are in the habit of planting trees, 
especially cotton-wood or locust, as a hedge. It requires very 
little care, though the locust is liable to be attacked by borers, 
and is much less certain than the cotton-wood, or the white wil- 
low, which grows almost as fast as the cotton-wood, and is pref- 
erable for some purposes. If there is no other protection, the 
trees should be planted three rows deep in quincunx. A hedge 
of this kind becomes impassable to cattle in a few years, and is 
the least expensive fence that can be made. If the trees are 
planted nine inches apart and twined with brush, it will be of 
service immediately. 

If trees were planted on a large scale all over the Territory, 
there is little doubt that they would mitigate the effects of the 
high winds and reduce the extremes of heat and cold. Keeping 
a large amount of ground protected from the sun, and prevent- 
ing that sudden drainage of the surface which is now changing 
the topography of the country little by little, they would have a 
tendency to increase the amount of rain by the slow evaporation 
of moisture from the surface of the leaves, and at the same time 
cause a more equal distribution of it. The extraordinary health 
of the prairies is doubtless owing to the high winds, which pre- 
vent the malarious gases, arising from decomposing vegetation, 
from collecting in any one place. While the planting of trees would 
so materially reduce the force of this wind as to add to the com- 
fort of the settler and the health of his stock, there could be no 
fear that it would affect the health of the country. Experience 
has shown that the growth of trees is beneficial in this respect. 
The malarious gases that escape from decomposing vegetation, 
are compounds of carbon. The leaves of the trees eagerly seek 
these compounds, decompose them, assimilate the carbon to them- 
selves, and render the gases not only powerless for harm, but 
liberate a certain amount of oxygen, which revivifies the air. 
The trees then purify the air, at the same time that they accumu- 
late the carbon for the future use of the farmer. 

While the trees are young they require very little care, which 
consists in preventing them in the first few years from being 



41 

choked by weeds, and in keeping out the prairie-fires. This is 
necessary, because the want of frequent rains renders the grass 
liable to take fii-e at any moment. The fire, once kindled, spreads 
rapidly, and young trees are very generally destroyed by it. 

Cotton-wood grows so vigorously that it is the natural pro- 
tector of the other trees. The harder trees should be planted with 
it, since the cotton-wood famishes the trees of slower growth 
the protection which they require from the weather. "When 
they have attained the proper size, the cotton-wood can be 
gradually thinned out, and the harder trees, which have been 
raised either from the seed or the cuttings, will then be old 
enough to bear transplanting. In this way, with little care, a 
plantation of trees can be made productive to the farmer at the 
end of a few years, and will well repay the trouble, not only by the 
interest on the capital invested, but also in the greater amount of 
his own comfort, and the increased health of the stock. 



MINERALS. 

The portion of the Territory included in this survey contains 
few minerals, and these, for the most part, of little importance. 

COAL. 

Coal has not as yet been found within the limits of this survey 
in workable beds. Thin seams are worked to some extent near the 
sm'face, in the southern part of the Territory. Coal is said to 
have been found in Johnson, ISTemaha, Pawnee, and Richardson 
counties ; but no authentic information was obtained concerning 
the beds worked. It is quite probable that some of the upper 
ones, which are usually thin, crop out there. There is very lit- 
tle doubt, however, that the bed measuring six feet in thickness 
will be found by a boring ; and from such basis for calculation as 
can be obtained, it is probable that it will be within a workable 
distance from the surface. 

PEAT. 

It is probable that peat-beds, similar to those in the eastern 
States, will be found in ISTebraska, especially in the vicinity 
of sloughs, or of lands which are wet during a certain portion of 
the year. Quite a number of muck-bogs may be seen on the bot- 



42 

toms of the Platte, the Elkhorn, and Pebble Creek. These bogs 
sometimes become so dry as to burn down several inches when 
the prairie takes fire in the Pall of the year. 

The peat is not only valuable for fuel, but also for manure. 
For heating purposes it has a value almost equal to the poorer 
kinds of coal, and if properly manufactured will prove an excel- 
lent fuel. 

IRON. 

Iron ores, of a quality that can be worked to advantage, are 
not found. A few scattered pieces of limonite (hydrated ses- 
quioxide of iron) are found in the drift, and in the sandstone 
of the Cretaceous period; but they are too siliceous and too 
poor to be worked with success. 

In some explorations on Calahan Creek, there were occasion- 
ally found small pieces of compact carbonate of iron of the Coal 
Measures. They did not appear to be abundant. It is possible 
that this variety may be found in making explorations for coal. 

MANGANESE. 

An ore of manganese is found in a stratum about six inches 
thick, covering the limestone of the Coal Measures at Larimer's 
Mills. It is also found at Pontinelle. It is called black sand- 
stone among the farmers, and will probably be of no commercial 
importance. 

BUILDING-STONE. 

The limestone of the Coal Measures furnishes excellent build- 
ing-stone, and is quarried extensively at Omaha, Bellevue, and 
Larimer for that purpose, l^o proper attention has been paid to 
the method of quarrying. It is done in the rudest way, by strip- 
ping off the earth ; and as there is a limit beyond which this can 
no longer be profitably done, the quarries are never extensive, 
and the stone is of constantly varying quality. The quarries on 
Pawnee Creek furnish a limestone so soft that it can be cut with 
a saw and planed, like the building-stones around Paris. It 
grows hard upon exposure, and makes a beautiful building-stone. 

The Cretaceous sandstones are used to some extent for 
foundations. These quarries cannot be depended upon, since the 



43 

stone varies in quality. It is prized by the farmers, how- 
ever, since where it is found it is the only rock. 

GRAVEL. 

Gravel and fine sands are found either on the bottoms of most 
of the rivers, or a short distance below the surface, and will be 
found useful for building purposes. 

LIME. 

The limestones of the Coal and Cretaceous fomiations furnish 
very good materials for making lime. It can be manufactured very 
cheaply, and requires no masonry. An excavation of the required 
size and shape is made in the bluff, which, after the first fire, 
will- become hardened, and retain its shape for a long time. The 
necessary openings are cut through from below, and require no 
support. When a kiln is burned it is covered over, to protect it 
from the weather, and the lime drawn out as required. 

HYDRAULIC CEMENT. 

It is probable that stone suitable for making hydraulic cement 
will be found. Some layers have all the exterior characters of 
the hydraulic limestones. It is impossible to tell, without trial, 
whether they are suitable for that purpose. 

ARTIFICIAL BUILDING-STONE. 

An artificial building-stone is growing in favor in Europe, and 
is much used in Paris for certain purposes. It consists of a mix- 
ture of sand and lime, with or without cement, in certain propor- 
tions, according to the nature of the stone required. Its intro- 
duction at Omaha has been undertaken by a company, and it 
will probably be found economical, as the materials of which it 
is made occur in great abundance. 

BRICK. 

The marl and clays of the bluff and the alluvial sands fur- 
nish very good materials for manufacturing brick, and are 
much used for that purpose. Machines are about to be intro- 
duced for tlie manufacture of bricks, which will furnish them 



44 

cheaper and of better quality than those made by hand. As the 
materials for their manufactm-e are distributed over a very large 
area, brick and the artificial building-stone will probably 
supersede wood in constructions. 

MILL SITES. 

The smaller streams which have high earth banks fui*nish ex- 
cellent sites for mills. Up to this time, but few dams have been 
built, owing partly to the failure in the structure of some, from 
want of knowledge, and partly to the fact that the Territory is 
yet too thinly settled to demand many mills. 

COKCLUSIOK. 

It is evident from the foregoing description that Nebraska must 
remain an agricultural country. For this it is destined by its geo- 
graphical position, no less than its fertile soil and its climate. Tra- 
versed by the great highway to the Pacific, and connected, there- 
fore, by the shortest route, with the central mining districts of 
the continent, it cannot fail to find, beyond its western borders, 
a permanent market for its staple products. The facility 
afibrded by its topography for the cultivation of large areas by 
machine-labor, will enable Nebraska to keep pace with the in- 
creasing demand of the future. Having once supplied the 
great western market, it will control it, and the gold and silver 
of the mountains will be exchanged in this Territory for grain 
and stock. Adding to these favorable conditions the present 
inducement of abundant cheap land, it is not difficult to foretell 
for this region a rapid increase of population, and a prosperous . 
future. 



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